Jansen came to Mercury to find one man,
and that seemed an easy enough task; the hitch
was that as a hunter he was also being hunted!
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy
October 1956
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Jansen began to sweat as soon as he left the spaceship. The bloated,swollen sun hovering near the horizon here in twilight zone wasdazzling even through his protective goggles. Jansen knew he would haveto get used to it: Mercury's twilight zone, like it or not, would behis home for the indefinite future.
Stowing his gear in the barracks while sweat streamed from his body,Jansen realized for the first time that his luggage had been examinedaboard the spaceship. That was bad; it could mean anything; itcertainly meant trouble.
I have to hurry, Jansen thought. In a day or so, they're liable tohaul me in for questioning.
"Still time for me to go out and join the work force?" Jansen asked thebarracks orderly as the old man came shuffling by.
"Eager, ain't you, mister. They'll get along without you tilltomorrow, you can bet."
"Well, can I go take a look, then?"
The old man studied him with surprise. Apparently gold-bricking and noteager-beavering was the order of the day here. "What's your rating?"the orderly asked.
"Twelve."
"Well, nobody would push you around, I guess," admitted the barracksorderly with grudging respect. "Why don't you see the town, though?Town's all right. Don't go out to the bogs unless you have to."
Bogs, thought Jansen. Bogs on Mercury's sun-side. He still couldn'tget over it.
Jansen changed into a skin-tight white insulsuit and went outside. Theinsulsuit covered him almost like an additional layer of skin: he woretrousers and a shirt over it. Without the insulsuit, exposure thisclose to Mercury's sun-side would be impossible for more than a fewmoments.
It took Jansen twenty minutes to realize he was being followed. Histail wore an insulsuit and a pair of colorful shorts. This seemed to bethe universal garb in Sun-side City, so that the hundreds of loungersand shoppers all looked alike, with the skull-cap cowls of theirinsulsuits even hiding the distinctiveness of their hair. Jansen's tailwas a man bigger than most, though, and it was only because he waswandering aimlessly in the sun-dazzled streets that Jansen became awareof pursuit at all.
He ducked into an alley between two cafes. Two women in skin-tightinsulsuits came by, then a man and a boy, then the big man who had beenfollowing Jansen. Abruptly Jansen stepped from the alley.
"Just a minute," he said.
The man whirled, a blank expression on his face.
"What do you want?" Jansen asked.
"I don't get you, mister. You stopped me, I didn't stop you. What doyou want?"
"You were following me," Jansen said.
"I never saw you before in my life."
Before Jansen could answer, the sun went down. It did not set, as thesun sets on Earth. It disappeared, due to the sudden unpredictablewobbles of Mercury's twilight zone. It was an astronomical phenomena.And, despite the sun's great apparent size, Jansen suddenly foundhimself in pitch darkness. It alarmed him at first, until he realizedthat Mercury had no atmosphere, except for the artificial pockets underthe man-made domes. There was no layer of air to retain the sun's glow.One moment, dazzling light; the next, almost total darkness.
"Where are you?" Jansen called. He groped his way toward where the manhad bee